The World Bank official who steered the transition
Two days before the 2002 election he withdrew his candidacy, saying 'the conditions for a transparent vote were not guaranteed.'
A finance technocrat who served as the Congo's first treasurer-general after independence and later as a World Bank executive director. When the one-party system collapsed, the 1991 sovereign national conference elected him transitional prime minister on a fourth ballot, giving him executive power to steer the country toward multiparty elections. After the transition he founded the Union for Democracy and the Republic (UDR-Mwinda) and remained a leading opposition figure against Denis Sassou Nguesso.
Career Timeline
- 1964First treasurer-general (Trésorier Payeur Général)
- 1969–1973Director General of Investments, Ministry of Planning
- 1975–1976Economic and financial adviser to the Prime Minister
- 1976–1983Executive director, African Development Bank
- 1986–1990Executive director, World Bank
- 1991Founded the Union for Democracy and the Republic (UDR-Mwinda)
- 1991–1992Prime minister of the transition
- 1993–1997President of the National Assembly